[atdec05]

Hi Tonya,

I would think if you're still considered Stage 3 that at some point your chemo would end since only Stage 4 would be eligible for 'maintenance chemo'.

There are clinical trials for Herceptin vaccines for women with no current evidence of disease. I looked into this, but I decided I didn't want to deal with flying out of state to participate. Maybe there is one closer to you.

How do you feel about your current 2 opinions? A 3rd opinion could confirm the first 2, or give you a new direction. I assume UCSF is a major hospital; is there another one to go to?

I had 3 opinions when I had my local recurrence - all with different recommendations. One wanted to treat it as metastatic; one wanted to treat it like failure of treatment and start over; one wanted to treat it as an incomplete treatment and add on what I didn't get first time around.

It seems like you wouldn't be asking for input here if you felt comfortable with the first 2 opinions, so if you can handle the stress of going through another opinion, you hopefully will end up feeling better about the decision you make about your treatment.

take care,

Anna